Halakhah zu Bamidbar 26:12

Several commentaries, by virtue of their answers to the query presented by Tosafot, indicate that, in their opinion, there is no obligation whatsoever to resurrect the dead. The Shitah Mekubezet parallels the previously cited view of Maimonides in stating that the child was not dead but merely in a swoon. Rosh,²³Quoted by Shitah Mekubeḥet, Baba Meẓi‘a 114b. Radbaz,²⁴Vol. V, no. 2203. and Abarbanel²⁵Commentary on the Guide, I, 42. Puzzling is the parallel cited by Abarbanel concerning the slaying of Zimri and Cozbi by Phineas (Num. 25:6–8), a deed which necessarily involved the latter’s defilement. The rabbinic view is that since Phineas was born before the consecration of Eliezer, he was not a priest by virtue of genealogical descent and, accordingly, required personal consecration to achieve priestly status. Rabbinic tradition views the verse “Behold I give him my covenant of peace” (Num. 26:12) as recording that this status was accorded him as a reward for his zeal in the matter of Zimri. Thus, at the time of the slaying, Phineas had not yet attained the status of a priest and was not bound by the priestly prohibition regarding defilement (See Zevaḥim 101b). all state that Elijah's act was a form of hora'at sha'ah—an action having express divine sanction limited to the specific case at hand—and from which no normative halakhic practice can be deduced.